12/17/11

Crewcut (Ellen Umansky)

Here is one of Playboy magazine's college fiction contest winners with a story from the October 1991 edition:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dggu2ik7wsulvsx

Were I a fiction editor putting together an anthology of contemporary stories, I'd consider "Crewcut" in a heartbeat. References to the story on the web are scarce, so I uploaded my copy of it in PDF format. Umansky gets inside the head of the young female character, who is dealing with family dysfunction while discovering her own identity.

I have had the story in my files for close to twenty years now. I remember the hassle I went through to photocopy the story at the SUNY Binghamton library, brown-paper bagging the cover of the magazine, struggling to get the job done quickly. I'm glad I did.

I lived off campus that semester. This was one of magazines the guys had lying around the living room. One day I got bored and wondered if the actual words in Playboy were any good; sure enough, every now and then, they strike gold, as is the case here. I hope you enjoy the story as much as I did. Happy December!